BFF

My son has a posse of 4 other boys that he considers his "best friends". They formed a strong and lasting bond during kindergarten while discovering a mutual love of all things Star Wars, Lego, robots and dinosaurs.

Then he found out two of his friends are moving away; one to Wisconsin, the other to Boston. One of the boys leaves in two weeks, the other in 3. It's been a difficult time for Evan, at once filled with sadness at not seeing his friends, disappointment that they're going away, and excitement that his friends get to explore new places. We've made pacts with his friends' families to keep in touch via email and/or visits, which has eased the pain a little. When he was told that his friend was moving to Boston he remarked, "Well, I'm just going with him." He said he'd stow away in a box or a suitcase.

A few weeks ago, Evan approached me and said, "I want to have a Best Friends party before my friends move away." I thought it was a fantastic idea and set the wheels in motion. We sent out e-vites to his buddies and, thankfully, everybody could come. One of Evan's friends plays baseball and dropped by between games, which meant a lot to my son.

The boys arrived around the designated time of 3 p.m. They were brandishing light sabers within 3 minutes of walking over the threshold of my home. Then, after putting on their swim trunks, they headed outside for a water gun fight which lasted for about an hour. They had a ball soaking each other and making up rules and teams for their Aqua Battles. While they were playing, I took a picture of the boys and gave each one a framed print to take home.

Wet and a little cold, they came inside and dove into building an Ewok village out of Lego. It was pretty neat to watch them as they cooperated and shared ideas on their project. And another good thing is they played with Flynn and did not exclude her. They also drew pictures that I, in turn, made into t-shirt iron-ons so they'd have another keepsake of the day.

Pizza was cooked and devoured, as were chocolate chip cookies and "Sith Sodas" (a strawberry flavored soda and raspberry sherbet float).

The boys left at 7, exhausted and happy to have had a nice long time in the company of their best buds.

Just as Evan planned it.